LG's response to foldable mania is a second screen

If you have not yet absorbed the leaks, the new LG V50 introduced today is a V40 reinforced with the new Snapdragon 855 processor, improved cooling, a larger battery and the future addition of 5G. In fact, the V50 is LG's first 5G phone. It is also the first to be compatible with a new accessory that the company deploys: a second complete screen.

The LG Dual Screen is essentially a folio case with a second OLED screen. The V50 has a 6.4-inch display, but the secondary panel is limited here to a diagonal of 6.2 inches, due to the size of its glasses. I've had to try the dual-screen system for myself here at the World Mobile Congress, and there are good and bad things to say about it.

Starting from the positive, I am convinced that there is a demand for this type of additional screen. The more screen manufacturers can fit into a stackable form, the more they will be able to pay a high price. And, indeed, a LG V50 which is connected a dual screen LG is just as convenient as the LG V50. The added thickness will not affect the fact that the already large appliance fits perfectly to your attire. The hinge design of the case, which can rotate 360 ​​degrees, is just as cool to show someone you're shooting how you frame the shot.

LG uses an exclusive Wi-Fi chipset that uses very short range and high bandwidth communication to transmit between the V50 and its additional display. When testing on the V50 Plus dual screen combo, I was unable to detect latency or other communication problems between the two panels in front of me. It worked as well as you would like when you use two monitors on your desktop.

There are Pogo pins on the back of the V50, which connect to the Dual Screen box and draw power for the auxiliary display of the phone's battery. There is no extra battery on the second screen, although adding one would probably have been larger than LG was willing to do.

The disadvantages of LG's new offer are predictable. First, the two screens are not of the same quality: I notice a slight difference, but detectable, the color temperature and viewing angles between them. I do not like the asymmetrical size either. LG's software design for this system is not bad, but it shows strange behaviors, such as displaying the on-screen keyboard on the left screen when I try to grab something right. I also had a hard time getting a game controller simulated by a racing game to be recognized as a racing game, and that's the initial problem that most people have before they even try such a gadget.

It would be naïve for me to conclude by saying "if LG can only improve its software", given the number of years I expect from LG to do it on several other fronts. And yet, I feel that the company's approach this year has been the most pragmatic and strongest of its competitors. Granted, it's a 5G phone, but LG has refrained from launching foldable flying pigs products to amaze people without offering them a workable thing that they can actually buy. The LG Dual Screen is the least glamorous approach, but much more pragmatic, to clutter other screens.

LG tells me that it plans to make all its future 5G devices compatible with a second screen of this type, although I can not get the company that it is committed to that all these devices are compatible with this particular model. In other words, every LG 5G phone will likely have its own dual-screen variant to offer. Oh, and the bad news for American V50 buyers, the Dual Screen option will not be offered in the US market.

The price of the LG Dual Screen remains a mystery at the moment, but we can probably be assured that a V50 plus Dual Screen will cost hundreds of dollars less than the truly extravagant Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X foldable unveiled this week .